The much-awaited rapid antibody test kits for CoVID-19 are set to arrive in the country today. Until now, India has been using the RT-PCR kits, which are highly sensitive, but take up to nine hours. Rapid antibody tests are blood tests that check for antibodies and can deliver results in a couple of hours.
A total of 6,50,000 kits, including Rapid Antibody Tests and RNA Extraction Kits, were dispatched early today from Guangzhou Airport to India, Vikram Misri, Indian ambassador in China, said in a tweet. “As part of MEA efforts to ensure vital medical supplies from other countries, Rapid Antibody Testing Kits (first lot of three lakh from Guangzhou Wondfo and 2.5 lakh from Zhuhai Livzon) and RNA Extraction Kits (1 lakh from MGI Shenzhen) were all custom cleared late Wednesday night and left for India this morning. A total of 6.5 lakh kits are on the way, and should reach India today. Our embassy in Beijing and consulate in Guangzhou played a key role,” MEA sources said.
Several states such as Kerala, Karnataka, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu have already announced plans to conduct the antibody tests. The rapid antibody test kits were due to arrive on April 9—as stated by ICMR in the government’s daily press briefing—but the consignment was delayed. In March, the ICMR had decided to place an order for 10 million kits, but pared it down to 5 million because of limited availability, Dr Raman R. Gangakhedkar, head, epidemiology and communicable diseases, ICMR said.
The ICMR advisory states that antibody tests will be used in areas reporting clusters (containment zones), and in large migrant gatherings/evacuation centres. However, experts say that these tests are not useful for clinical diagnosis because antibodies take 7-10 days to develop, and so the test may throw up false negatives.
Based on current evidence, the WHO recommends the use of these new point-of-care immunodiagnostic tests only in research settings. They should not be used in any other setting, including for clinical decision-making, until evidence supporting use for specific indications are available.